Is anybody else trying to breed the perfect dual purpose breed.

[stoneunhenged]

The cream legbar certainly produces visually sexable chicks, but I have seen no auto-sexing breed where the gender difference is as striking as those chicks produced by the rhodebar. The male chicks hatch out blonde, and the female chicks hatch with chipmunk stripes. A three-year-old child could easily sex these birds. Below is a picture of a male and female we hatched last week. These are chicks less than 24 hours old:

 

[eggdd]

Quote:
do you have more info these birds?

edited to add:

greenfire has them: http://greenfirefarms.com/store/category/chickens/rhodebar/

According to the Britannic Rare Breeds-
The Rhodebar was developed by several parties at around the same period prior to 1950. It is possible existing birds in the UK originate from a Mr B. De. H. Pickard from Storrington in Sussex who used Barred Plymouth Rock, an auto-sexable American breed crossed with Rhode Island Red. Mr Pickard gained standardisation from the Poultry Club of Great Britain in October 1952. During the early 1900’s the Rhode Island Red featured along with the North Holland Blue and Light Sussex as one of the most popular commercial free range laying birds. Therefore the Rhodebar was created to be an excellent laying breed that would allow cockerels to be easily identified and removed from the growing stock early on. Unfortunately the Rhodebar came in to existence at the end of the pure breed era, at a time when specific hybrid stock was being created for egg farms. Rhodebar could certainly prove to be an excellent choice for anyone wishing to create a small free-range egg laying flock and are useful for those that do not have the room to grow on all birds to select and determine sex. We have also sourced the bantam version which was created by Brian Sands of Lincolnshire. The bantam gene pool is very small, consisting of only one distinctive bloodline. Further inbreeding can be avoided by sensible line breeding or by crossing a Rhodebar cockerels with Rhode Island Red pullets then selecting the barred chicks from the progeny.

http://www.britannicrarebreeds.co.uk/breedinfo/chicken_rhodebar.php

Chris

chris, as always, you're awesome.

 

[gjensen]

The advantage of being able to visually sex chicks at hatch, is to not have to raise up the cockerels. I realize that to some dual purpouse is to have a meaty hen after lay, but to me it means raising up the cockerels for meat as well. In this case there is not a big advantage to seperating the chicks at hatch. I guess if you only want to raise up a particular quantity the trait might be helpful. Rhodebars would not be difficult to make. Good production reds and rocks and a few years . . . Again visually sexing chicks is more of an advantage to laying flocks. The English interest in visually sexing chicks was for laying flocks. The hybrid vigor of American sex linked crosses won out. I am not knocking Rhodebars, I just wouldn't call them an ultimate dual purpouse breed. They could be a good bird for someone that wanted a sustainable laying flock, and not want to buy replacement pullets (prefering to raise their own). The cost of raising cockerels in a laying flock is an obstacle. That is if you want to euthanize the chicks, instead of raising them up for the table.

 

[punky rooster]

As you said before, George, there is no "ultimate" or perfect for everyone. No "one sized fits all" breed.
Mitch

 

[burtonjon]

My decision to call the Rhodebar the ultimate dual purpose Chicken was not merely based on them being autosexing. If we look back at the Rhode Island Red it has been called the do everything bird. They are one of the best layer, there meat is exceptional, hardy in cold and warm climates, and good free range birds. So if you wrap all that into one chicken plus add autosexing you have the Rhodebar. So if its not the ultimate dual purpose chicken it has to be close.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
You saw one privater breeders stock and make a judgement about breeders and their stock on that one breeder?

Hatcheries do serve a purpose as you stated; a very important purpose. However, I promise you that you are not going to find a SINGLE hatchery in the US that can provided you with the quality of Orientals that I and a few others raise. I can't speak about all breeds nor would I attempt too, but I can speak about Asil, Shamo, and Malays.

There are some very top-notch Hatcheries out there. The stock that Urch/Turnlund Hatchery puts out for example is just excellent. But Duane Urch has been a show breeder for over 60 years. Not all hatcheries are equal.

Just saying.........

Maybe in your area there are plenty of breeders of the ornamental show birds, none of which I would actually want in the first place. The only breeder in this area of any dual purpose breed is the aforementioned breeder...so I have only that one from which to form an opinion. It was enough.

Advising people and telling people they can only get good quality birds from a breeder is like saying I can only get a good quality car from the Mazerati dealer....guess what? They don't make 'em, import 'em or sell 'em in this part of the country, folks, so hatchery chicks are all there is....and I've always been quite satisfied with the quality of my hatchery birds, so why fix it if it isn't broken? Why all the insults to hatchery birds when they function, live and reproduce just fine for any common person's needs?

Why? Because you are a breeder and you make money off putting down one product and promoting another.

 

[gjensen]

Quote:
I apologize if I came across as being critical. That was not my intent. What you don't know is that I was interested in creating some. Where I ended up was with so few good Reds out there, if I was going to work with Reds it would be Reds. The advantage of auto sexing wouldn't do me alot of good if I was to raise the cockerels up. I was merely stating my opinion on something that I had thought out. I am not saying that someone couldn't make use of the trait either. I hope that you are succesful working with them.
I imagine that there are plenty of people that would choose to work with birds other than what I have chosen.

 

[Lordofchickens 86]

Quote:
thats a cool bird and nice yard their

 

[Lordofchickens 86]

see mine in ten years they will be the best.

but the rhodebar is pretty.looks like a darn good chicken.auto sexing is only good if you care about not raising cockerals.since i eat extra cockerals it is a plus to have them.

 

[gjensen]

Quote:
You saw one privater breeders stock and make a judgement about breeders and their stock on that one breeder?

Hatcheries do serve a purpose as you stated; a very important purpose. However, I promise you that you are not going to find a SINGLE hatchery in the US that can provided you with the quality of Orientals that I and a few others raise. I can't speak about all breeds nor would I attempt too, but I can speak about Asil, Shamo, and Malays.

There are some very top-notch Hatcheries out there. The stock that Urch/Turnlund Hatchery puts out for example is just excellent. But Duane Urch has been a show breeder for over 60 years. Not all hatcheries are equal.

Just saying.........

Maybe in your area there are plenty of breeders of the ornamental show birds, none of which I would actually want in the first place. The only breeder in this area of any dual purpose breed is the aforementioned breeder...so I have only that one from which to form an opinion. It was enough.

Advising people and telling people they can only get good quality birds from a breeder is like saying I can only get a good quality car from the Mazerati dealer....guess what? They don't make 'em, import 'em or sell 'em in this part of the country, folks, so hatchery chicks are all there is....and I've always been quite satisfied with the quality of my hatchery birds, so why fix it if it isn't broken? Why all the insults to hatchery birds when they function, live and reproduce just fine for any common person's needs?

Why? Because you are a breeder and you make money off putting down one product and promoting another.

Where was the hatchery insults? I must have missed that part. Beekissed you are right. Hatchery birds make fine backyard layers. Good healthy and colorful layers. Nothing wrong with having them.
Saladin, does not make any money off of his birds. He would have to ship large quantities to pay for all that he has. For some it is "more a labor of love". His motivation is not money.